Chelsea ready to sell Courtois, replace him with AS Roma goalkeeper — report

Thibaut Courtois has one year left on his Chelsea contract, and while he’s maintained that he has no problem playing for the Blues next season as well, he’s been less positive about actually signing an extension. What he wants above all is clarity about his future, whether that means staying or leaving.

With little in the way of rumors of an extension, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the Italian Transfer Oracle, Gianluca Di Marzio is voting YES on Courtoexit, claiming that Chelsea “must sell” the goalkeeper or risk losing him for nothing (well, duh). The Blues “definitely broke off negotiations” with the 26-year-old at some point, which would match the aforementioned lack of transfer rumors.

But why is Di Marzio talking about this in the first place? Apparently the “first name” on Chelsea’s list of replacements is AS Roma’s bearded wonder, Alisson. And we’re talking a proper beard, not the Loris Karius-kind, thankfully.

The Alisson-to-Chelsea rumor is only part of Di Marzio’s gander at the goalkeeping situation in the Italian capital, as Roma are apparently wanting to sign Udinese’s 21-year-old budding star Alex Meret. Ostensibly, Meret would be just a backup, but the Italy U21 international is probably good enough to make the step up and be a starter in Serie A already. He started 11 games last season while on loan at relegation-bound S.P.A.L. Meret would thus provide at least a safety option if Roma decided to (or had to) cash in on Alisson.

The 25-year-old, who’s set to backstop Brazil’s bid to atone for World Cup embarrassment four years ago, has been strongly linked with Liverpool, like so many others already have this summer. That’s just one of the many perks of making the Champions League final. Chelsea won’t even be in the competition next season, which will add another layer of difficulty to this transfer window. But if there is truly no way forward with Courtois, we will indeed need to cut our losses and find a replacement for him, and quickly. As with most of our endeavors this summer, there is little time to waste.